How King Richard's Faire discriminates
against observant Jews
and others with special dietary needs

On September 25, 2005, my family visited King Richard's Faire, in
Carver, Massachusetts, for the first time. As any parent of young
children knows, food is an important part of any outing with children,
so, as we always do, we took time in advance of the outing to figure
out the food.

The Faire has a plethora of vendors selling food and drink of all
sorts. However, since we keep kosher, we are unable to eat the food
sold at the Faire or at most other similar events. We're used to
dealing with this, so without any hesitation we packed a picnic lunch
and snacks for the kids to bring with us on our outing.

When we arrived at the front gate with our food, we found “No
outside food or drink” posted prominently at the gate. Oddly,
this policy is not mentioned on the Faire's extensive Web site.

I approached one of the gate-tenders, explained that we were unable
to eat any of the food sold inside the Faire because we keep kosher,
and asked him to allow us to bring our food into the Faire. He said
he'd have to get his boss to talk to me, left, and returned quickly
with the Assistant Box Office Manager. She refused to allow us to
bring our food into the Faire, and said we would have to eat it in our
car or in the open area in front of the entrance.

[Added 9/17/2009] A number
of people have asked in comments why we didn't simply leave the Faire
when it was time for lunch, eat outside, and then come back. I agree
that this would have been a perfectly reasonable solution, and indeed
we asked the gate staff if we could do this. Unfortunately, in
addition to all of the other predatory, greedy policies that King
Richard's Faire imposes upon its patrons and staff, as noted below,
they have a no re-entry policy, they don't allow people to leave and
come back on the same day without paying again. In my experience,
prohibiting re-entry is virtually unheard of in venues of this
sort.

I went off to consult with my family about what we should do. My
wife suggested that I ask if there was anyone else I could speak to
about this policy. This I did, and shortly afterward, I was
introduced to the Box Office Manager. He, too, refused to allow us to
bring in our food.

When I pressed for an explanation of this policy, he informed me,
“If something happened to you while eating your food on our
propery, we'd be liable.” This explanation is, to borrow a
renaissance term, bullocks. The Faire allows visitors to bear swords
and daggers without a second glance. The Faire has booths where
visitors can buy real weapons, shoot a crossbow, shoot a bow and
arrow, or throw knives. In short, there are dangerous implements of
destruction everywhere you look, frequently in the hands of amateurs.
But the Faire can't take the chance that I might choke on my corned
beef? Oh, please.

[Added 10/6/2005] While I was talking to the
box office staff, the producer and owner of the faire, Bonnie Shapiro,
sidled up to my wife and started discussing the situation with her.
She was dressed casually and did not identify herself as the owner; my
wife thought she was speaking with a parking lot attendant.
Ms. Shapiro told my wife that the issue of allowing in kosher food had
not been raised before and that she would bring it to the attention of
the appropriate people. Who the appropriate people would be, if not
the owner of the Faire, is unclear. In any case, I'm mentioning this
only because Ms. Shapiro claimed in a
letter that she had introduced herself to my wife, a claim which
my wife disputes.

It has been suggested to me that the no-outside-food policy is
intended to prevent visitors from bringing their own booze and getting
plastered at the Faire. We're supposed to believe that the management
of King Richard's Faire, a controlled environment with only one
entrance and exit and numerous hulky staff members and police on duty
throughout the day, can't figure out how to keep booze out while
allowing other food in, or how to control inebriated people? This,
despite the fact that the city of Boston manages to do it every year
on July 4 at the Esplanade, where hundreds of thousands of people are
packed in so tightly that they can't sit down, and despite the fact
that alcoholic beverages are sold at the Faire? No, this is not a
credible explanation.

Let's be honest.... There is one and only one real reason for the
no-outside-food policy: greed. The Faire charges a whopping $24 for
adults and $12 for children. That's less than other attractions like
Six Flags or Disney World, but the difference is that once you've paid
at those attractions, the rides are free. At King Richard's Faire,
virtually everything costs money. Every ride costs more.
Every entertainer guilts the audience into tipping at the end of the
show. Even the “oracle of the wood”, a woman dressed up
like a birch tree who walks slowly around the grounds all day, demands
a tip before she'll share her wisdom with you. Furthermore, despite
the high entrance fees, only cash is accepted at the gate, another
policy which is not mentioned on the Faire's Web site. Merchants who
charge this much and refuse to accept credit cards do it for only one
reason: because convenience for their visitors is less important to
them than hanging on to the few perentage points they'd have to pay in
card processing fees.

The food prices at the Faire are outrageous, but they're not that
much higher from the food prices at other attractions. What's
different is that those other attractions don't force
visitors to buy their food or treat people who don't as second-class
citizens. The Faire does, because the Faire wants to milk its
visitors for all they're worth.

My family has gone on many outings, some of which were to
facilities which had similar no-outside-food policies. Before the
Faire, we'd never been refused entry with our own food after
explaining why we needed it.

[Updated 9/28/2005] The Faire's
no-outside-food policy does not just discriminate against observant
Jews. It also discriminates against people with disabilities.
Celiacs, diabetics, people with serious allergies, people on
doctor-prescribed diets... These people are apparently not fully
welcome at King Richard's Faire. I've heard on-line from people with
medical dietary restrictions who said that King Richard's Faire
wouldn't let them bring in their own food. However, I've also heard
from people who said that they contacted the Faire and were told that
people with medical dietary restrictions would be able to
bring in their own food, although these people didn't actually try it.
I don't know who's right.

[Updated 9/28/2005] Refusing to allow people
who keep kosher to bring their own food into the Faire may be
discriminatory, but contrary to assertions I made in an earlier
version of this text, it probably isn't illegal. However, if
the people with medical dietary restrictions are right that they
weren't allowed to bring their own food into the Faire, that
is clearly illegal under the ADA. This ruling
describes how the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against
Clear Channel Communications for refusing to allow diabetics to bring
their own food into concert venues, and Clear Channel entered into a
consent decree stipulating that they would change their policies; it
seems unlikely that they would have agreed to this if they felt they
would prevail at trial.

When we were refused entry with our food, I would have preferred to
turn around and leave. However, we had driven over an hour to get
there, and while I was negotiating with the gate staff, my family had
already purchased our tickets and gone in with the kids, who were
immediately overjoyed by all the sights and sounds. Since it would
have been simply too disappointing to tell them at this point that we
had to leave, I reluctantly agreed for us to stay and eat our lunch
outside the entrance.

While most visitors ate their lunch seated at comfortable, shaded
tables while enjoying entertainment, we ate ours on the ground in the
burning sun, with arriving visitors staring at us as they walked by.
It was quite an unpleasant taste of what it feels like to be singled
out and treated differently because of my religion.

I do not respond well to this kind of treatment; it spoiled my
entire visit to the Faire, and to some extent that of my family, both
because of how we were forced to eat our lunch and because they had to
drag around a grumpy guy (i.e., me) all day.

I am posting this to warn others who might be impacted by this
discrimination to think twice before patronizing King Richard's Faire.
Furthermore, for those readers who would be perfectly happy to visit
the Faire and buy food there.... Do you really wish to patronize a
venue whose management believes this is an appropriate way to treat
people?

[Added 9/29/2005; updated 10/6/2005] As an
alternative, consider the Connecticut Renaissance Faire.
It's about as far from Boston as King Richard's Faire; its ticket
prices are less ($15 instead of $24 for adults and $6 instead of $12
for kids); it accepts credit cards; it has a host of free games and
activities; it allows visitors to leave the Faire and return on the
same day (King Richard's Faire has a no readmittance policy); and it
allows visitors to bring in their own food.

If you would like to let King Richard's Faire know that you share
my concerns, you can reach them in Carver at (508) 866-5391 or
P.O. Box 419, Carver, MA 02330. Their corporate
headquarters can be reached at (952) 238-9915 or 140 Gideons
Point Rd., Tonka Bay, MN 55331.

[Added 10/10/2005] I've taken quite a
beating for making a fuss about this. Polite people have asked why
I'm bothering. Impolite people have called me all sorts of nasty
names. The name-calling I don't really care about, but why I'm
bothering is an interesting question, which I address here.

[Added 12/06/2010] To comment on this
article or read others' comments, please
visit this
page. The comment page has actually been available since October
10, 2005, and there has been for a long time a small link to it at the
top and bottom this page, but someone just pointed out to me that
they're rather difficult to spot, so I'm posting the link here as
well.

[Added 12/06/2010] As noted in a
comment
from several years ago, the summer after I had my run-in with KRF,
they updated their Web site to mention their no-outside-food
policy. Alas, they've revamped their Web site again, and neither the
no-outside-food policy nor their no-readmittance policy is mentioned
anywhere on it.